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Subject: Re: Teaching someone to program (OT)

Author: Tom Kerrigan

Date: 12:58:38 04/23/02

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On April 23, 2002 at 08:35:48, Russell Reagan wrote:

>Well, when I said I wanted to explain how the computer works I was thinking
>about saying things like, "the computer runs a list of simple instructions" and
>"the compiler takes your program and turns it into a program that your computer
>understands and can run." Nothing too technical :)

I've never heard of a class that starts out like this. I think getting a Hello
World program to work is much more interesting and involving than listening to a
lecture on theory. People will eventually wonder what's in the EXE files they're
creating and then they can learn.

I don't have the K&R book handy, but I think they have some good simple programs
towards the beginning, e.g., after Hello World is a Fahrenheit to Celsius
converter, IIRC.

>of my main interests, although she did seem very excited about the idea of
>learning how to make webpages as someone else suggested in this thread.

Not to dis the idea, and making web pages is a fine skill to have, but nobody
will get insights into real programming by learning about bold tags...

-Tom



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